1. Stay positive but cool. Nothing numbs any potential excitement someone else may or may not have about what you’re saying than being negative.
2. Smile. But mix in other facial expressions now and then. Too much smiling hurts and will give you wrinkles. More important, too much smiling is off-putting and creepy.
3. Okay now we’ll do the real advice. (more…)
Security blanket? Human pack instinct? A desparate distraction from lack of substance? Most people cringe at buzzwords, yet they’ve become such a common part of how businesses talk within their walls that it’s spilling over into how they talk to customers, even how they see their customers. “Well the employees seem to love synergy, let’s invade customers’ ears with this meaningless abomination of the english language,” might be the thinking, more likely though it’s just around so much that no one takes notice, no one is there to put a stop to the madness. It’s corporate turrets. Some new words are truly needed, with new meaning, usually born of necessity due to some new technology. Others were once just fine but have been twited or overused and left weak, boring, even annoying due to this. Still others are and always have been simply silly. What’s the answer? Here are some of the buzzwords (and a fast-spreading grammar disease) that should be permanently laid to rest.
Innovative –
This means new and creative, as you no doubt know. It’s overused to the point of meaning nothing really. Most people just sort of shut off for a few seconds after they hear it today. Plus, the word creative inherently means new anyway. If something is creative it’s by default new and if it is not new, well then it wasn’t creative. Creative has the added benefit of not putting people to sleep and not being in the tagline of a million tech companies. Everyone uses innovative though… we even use it, we’re trying to get better but it’s so easy to fall off that wagon. Try this, the next time you hear or see the word innovative, replace it with “genius” or “creative” and see how much better it sounds. There are pleny of other words that work the same and are more exciting, less cliche too. Not being facetious (farcical, flippant, frivolous, droll, fanciful, ironic, sarcastic, whimsical, waggish, sprightly, satirical) at all, the thesaurus really is underused.
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